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Digital transformation is already happening throughout the healthcare industry, most noticeably in aspects of care delivery. But the built environment, though slower to see that transformation, is also poised for a digital overhaul.
Enstoa is taking the lead on accelerating this digital transformation of the built environment. Jordan Cram, CEO of the technology company, detailed that work during a presentation at HealthSpaces.
“Five, six, seven years ago, we were sitting together saying wouldn’t it be great to have a virtual replication of existing buildings,” Cram said. “It would make capital projects faster and better, and allow for assets to be managed effectively.”
Today, he said, the company has such a product in Starfish Spaces.
Accurate, Comprehensive, and Quick
Billed as a powerful, intuitive space management system for healthcare facility owners, Starfish Spaces aims to streamline the building process through digital visualization.
“It’s accurate, comprehensive, and quick,” Cram said. “It allows the capital planning team to go from plan approval to design start. You can skip the tedious steps of site surveys and getting people out to take photos and model existing conditions. They already have access to all that.”
The product allows users to view detailed information on their spaces from virtually anywhere. The leadership team can run space scenarios or discuss move and consolidation plans from their home office, while the engineering team can look at assets in the fourth-floor equipment room from their desks across town.
“They can do all of this with confidence that they are working on a rock-solid baseline,” Cram said.
Space for Everyone
In addition to providing easily accessible data on buildings, Starfish Spaces also aims to meet everyone’s space needs, from senior leadership to the IT department.
“It’s not just the key built environment departments that benefit from the product,” he said. “When we went through a hospital system we found a lot of people with space needs. IT security, environmental services...there are a lot of people with that space spreadsheet.”
But the information currently provided isn’t always accurate as space information has been created over a long period of time, and that makes referencing space details difficult.
With that in mind, Enstoa worked to develop a space nomenclature standard and equipment class action standard with ASHE and FGI.
“We can quickly capture spaces and map them into the right standard categories,” Cram said. “This allows an individual to go and explore a space like they might on Google Street View.”
All in the Details
In order to provide users’ confidence in Starfish Spaces, Enstoa focused on the details.
“An Enstoa associate uses equipment that zooms around a hospital or building anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 square feet a day, capturing the imagery. This is used to create a 3D model of the existing conditions, capturing the imperfect, too, because that’s the reality,” Cram said.
The details are then compared to existing documentation. In some cases, the captured information is significantly different from the original plans.
Reality Capture - Enstoa Technology
“The building itself can be off,” Cram said. “In one case, the building was 9 percent larger in square footage than in the plan. We know changes happen through construction and renovations over the years. This allows us to produce accurate documentation that companies need, like safety plans and architectural designs.”
With so much attention to the details, Cram notes that, for example, a company can view windowsills and see the knots in the wood or easily survey a roof.
“We model down to a lot of detail of the room, giving engineers confidence to trace systems without having to get ladders or look at that stuff,” he said.
Just the Beginning
Starfish Spaces is just one limb of a suite that aims to create the digital transformation of the built environment, Cram said.
“We want to make it really robust,” he said.
There are additional pieces of the program, including integrating information with financial systems and even computerized maintenance systems.
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